Bishops discuss married priests petition

Australian Catholic Bishops Conference President Archbishop Philip
Wilson has responded to a petition calling for married priests.

He
gave an assurance that the Bishops had a discussion at last week's
plenary meeting on the need to make "adequate pastoral and sacramental
provision for the Church in Australia".

Catholica Australia reports the petition raised interest among the bishops and more than three hours were devoted to discussing the issue.

Dr
Paul Collins, on behalf of the petition organisers, says he was “more
than happy” with the formal letter response from Archbishop Wilosn and
general feedback from individual bishops.

“We were more than surprised with the level of interest the petition generated within the Church,” Dr Collins said.

“Our
original hope had been to try and generate a response of around 10,000
signatures and to receive over 16,700, including over 160 responses
from priests, exceeded their expectation by a long way,” he said.